For some time, hardware and software manufacturers have included features in their products that permit a user to play back a previously recorded DVD, CD or other type of media on the computer. By inclusion of an appropriate tuner and other electronic components, many computers are also able to receive radio and/or television transmissions. Through the use of streaming and other techniques, many radio, television and other types of broadcasts are also available over the Internet. For convenience, “media playback” will be used herein to include (but not be limited to) playback of DVDs, CDs, and other types of removable storage media, playback of audio, video, still pictures or other type of media file stored on a computer, and playback of radio, television and other types of broadcasts (whether received over the airwaves, over the Internet, or in another manner).
As computers, and particularly laptop computers, become more advanced and more compact, and as the number of people owning and using computers continues to grow, media playback functions become increasingly important. As one example, many persons carry a laptop computer when they travel. Using a DVD media playback function, a traveler who is waiting in an airport or is on a long airplane flight can watch a movie to help pass the time.
For various reasons, it is desirable to make the media playback functionality of a computer more similar to that of consumer electronic devices that are dedicated to media playback (e.g., dedicated DVD players, televisions, radios, etc.). In particular, there is an industry effort to simplify the procedure for using a computer for media playback. With a dedicated media playback device such as a DVD player or television, only a few steps are typically required to begin using the device. Often, the user need only turn on the power and (in the case of a DVD player) put in the DVD to be watched. Computers, however, generally require more effort. If the computer is not already in use, a user may first need to boot the computer and/or login with a user name and/or password. The user must often locate and launch an appropriate application program. Although these steps are not especially challenging for most computer users, they can be inconvenient. For less sophisticated users, these additional steps can pose a more significant impediment.
Using a computer for media playback can also exacerbate security and privacy concerns. In many cases, a single computer is used by many people. Some of those users (e.g., parents in a household) may store confidential and/or critical data on the computer, while others (e.g., children) may only want to use the computer to watch a movie. User ids and passwords can make it is possible to restrict the programs and data accessible by different persons. However, this solution is often not used. Assigning user ids and passwords, as well as configuring a computer to restrict access based on user id, can require time and/or expertise that a typical consumer may not possess. As more users routinely access the same computer for such tasks as media playback, the likelihood of security or privacy compromises can increase.
To date, there have been some efforts to make computers more like dedicated media playback devices. One technique is to configure a computer for dual booting. More specifically, two separate operating systems (OSs) are installed on the computer in separate partitions of the hard drive (or one operating system may be installed in the hard drive and another OS may reside in firmware). One OS, which may be smaller and/or more specialized (e.g., Linux, or the WINDOWS CE OS available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.) is booted when the user only wishes to perform media playback. When the user wishes to use the computer for other purposes, the other OS (e.g. the WINDOWS XP operating system available from Microsoft Corporation) is booted.
A dual-boot solution presents several problems, however. Even though a first (or “primary”) OS and a second OS intended for media playback may operate in separate partitions, the media-playback OS may still have access to the file structure of the primary OS. This can have serious security and privacy implications, especially if the second OS is allowed to read and/or write data to the partition managed by the first OS. In such a case, any access control or other security mechanisms of the first OS can be bypassed by the second OS. On the other hand, disallowing cross-partition access also presents problems. If there is no cross-partition access, a user would not have full access to media files stored on another partition.
A dual-boot system can also pose significant burdens upon a computer manufacturer.
For example, the primary OS (i.e., the OS used for conventional purposes and not limited to media playback) could be manufactured by one company, and the OS used for media playback may be manufactured by a second company or be an open-source product. If the two OSs are provided by separate companies, the computer manufacturer may be forced to pay two separate license fees. Even if one OS is open source, the computer manufacturer would usually bear the financial burden of any required modifications to the open source OS. The manufacturer would also be required to create duplicate media hardware drivers for each OS. Providing technical support, product updates and patches for two OSs could also be significantly more complex than is the case with a single OS. Aside from the financial implications of installing and supporting two different OSs, a dual boot system is often unsatisfactory from a user perspective. In a dual-boot environment, a user must reboot or power down if he or she wishes to switch from a media-playback mode to a normal operating mode. This results in a transition from one OS to another which is abrupt and undesirable from a usability point of view. For example, pausing a movie to read a document, check e-mail or perform some other task would be cumbersome.
For these and other reasons, there remains a need for systems and methods permitting a computer to be more easily used for media playback.